Janelle Reston’s short story “Wordless Surrender” in Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 2, about a Deaf dominant woman and her submissive female partner, has garnered praise from numerous reviewers, who’ve said the tale “has an extremely strong sense of character alongside a rapturous sense of love for bondage and dominance that translates well even if you don’t kink to it.”

How long have you been writing erotica? How and why did you get started?

I’ve written short fiction for many years, but only decided to dip my toes into erotica a year or so ago after a writing friend sent me a sexy story prompt. I had a lot of fun with it, and lamented not having dipped my toes in the erotica pool earlier. Now I’m making up for lost time!

What was the inspiration for your story, “Wordless Surrender,” in Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 2?

I wanted to write a BDSM story that differed from the usual alpha male fare. Not that there’s anything wrong with alpha males, but they aren’t my cup of tea. I thought about the kind of characteristics I like in a Dom/me, and Allie transpired. I studied to become an American Sign Language interpreter before a hand injury precluded that career path, and have been lucky to work with some incredibly strong, self-aware Deaf women. Although Allie was not modeled on any particular person, my life experience certainly must have fed into my creation of the characters.

What were the most enjoyable and most challenging parts of writing it?

I am hearing, and though I’ve been friends with Deaf people, my sensory experience of the world is different from theirs. Among the Deaf, sensory perceptions differ, too. (Deafness or hard-of-hearing generally means that a person can’t hear normal speech without a hearing aid, but the ability to hear other sounds varies from person to person.) So I had to put myself in the shoes of a character who perceives the world differently than I do and relay that to the reader. That was a challenge, but it’s a challenge I’m familiar with since I rarely write autobiographically.

How does your story fit in with your larger body of writing (if at all)?

Ability, disability, power exchange, and queerness are repeating themes in my work. I’m disabled and queer and enjoy seeing people like me in fiction, so I try to write the stories I want to read.

What’s your favorite lines or paragraph from your story?

Allie froze for a moment, taken in by the view of her favorite pet. Marbeth was looking the other way, distracted perhaps by the sounds of the busy street behind her. She gazed off in the distance at something Allie could neither hear nor see, stroking her fingers self-consciously against her bare neck as if longing for the collar that wasn’t yet around her throat.

What are you working on next?

I write a lot of my short stories off-the-cuff when the inspiration strikes, but I do have a longer project going that involves a modern retelling of Cinderella where the godmother, step-sisters, a coachman, and the prince (or at least one aspect of him) are all rolled into one character. There’s also some time travel between modern California and the Mormon Trail (a route from Illinois to Utah traveled by thousands of Mormon pioneer-colonists in the mid 1800s), with some mystical encounters with genderqueer fairies along the way. I swear it all ties together when you read it!

Read or listen to all of “Wordless Surrender” by Janelle Reston in Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 2, available from: